Blogs from Ica, Peru, South America - page 83

- FOOD: Potato dish thing that woman on stall was having for her lunch - she let me try a bit as I was looking so longingly at it after having bought yet more choc and crisps (all they have on sale on these stalls - where are the packaged sandwiches?!) Cheer up chocolate cake - AREA: Depressing Nazca town but very interesting Nazca lines which can only be seen by air (in a tiny bumpy plane). Very clear and all sorts of shapes and sizes. Huacachina - Oasis paradise village in the middle of massive sand dunes. - PEOPLE: Not many in ghost town Nazca except those trying to sell you tours the minute you step off a night bus. Slow tour people. Everyone fascinated by Olly (my walking stick with personality) Old friends that ... read more

Part one of my plan went off without a hitch. Immediately on our return from the canyon I began racing around Arequipa in a series of tiny taxis. These little yellow boxes are everywhere buzzing through the streets and beeping their horns every fifty metres. They are so comically small that two people could probably lift one out of the way if it parked your car into a spot. With the adrenaline pumping and my empty stomach growling, I did a mad repack of my bag and raced between the bus terminal and my hostel to secure a ticket. After wolfing down a massive rectangular pizza and thanking my landlady for her hospitality, I was on the 22:00 bus to Ica. From Ica the plan was to zip out to the strangely located desert Oasis of ... read more

Thirty years ago, my poor table manners led me to the kitchen to eat with what we called the ´servants´. At that point in time in my life, we were affluent with four ´servants´. Between the live-in gardner, cook, houskeeper and nanny we were well served. Tonight I found myself choosing between eating some chicken and fries alone at the table, or joining one of the ´servants´ in the kitchen - the choice was obvious. Throughout my travels in Mexico, Guatemala, Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Peru and a few other countries where the class system is disfunctioning as it was designed, I gradually found myself gravitating towards those of indigenous heritage and away from the european stock. Mission trips deep into Mexico offered a looking glass into the life on the other side of the race ... read more

Sunday is a good day to spend developing a web site for the people of Nasca... For over twenty years, i accumulated money and stuff, working like a mad man to get to the top of corporate america - VP Sales for the Americas, Australia - VP Consulting, VP Sales EDS, VP Sales blah blah blah - At fourty i realized the top of the 1% of wealth in all of the world was a shame badge not an accomplishment. It works for many people, and I do not intend to insult or slam or question any motives or results or lifetime accomplishments of anyone reading this or alive - this is about me. The web site is my gift to the people of Nasca - i beleive it to be one of the most comprehensive ... read more

something funny happened to me on the way to the hamock - cocks, and men have several things in common - no not that - that they want everyone to know how important they are, and want everyone to look at them - and then the yeventually etiher go away or shut up... if you are at a small provincial restaurant, and out of courtesy the owner, you are served a bowl of soup - caution it may be hot, and it may be soup from fish heads... once again, smile (and unlike the guiny pig) swollow all of it... and say thank you very much it was fantastic - when i was a child i played like a child and was child like - the more i play, the more childlike i become and the ... read more